Netflix's CEO has a warning for AT&T and Time Warner

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is fine with AT&T buying Time
Warner — as long as it doesn't end up hurting Netflix in an
"unfair" way.

"We want to make sure it doesn't give an unfair advantage to
HBO,"
Hastings said at the WSJDLive conference on Monday. "If it's
open competition, we love that."

The main concern for Hastings is that AT&T might make data
run faster for channels and services it owns. Hastings wants
"HBO's bits" and "Netflix's bits" to be treated the same. In
other words, he wants net neutrality, a concept that is seen by
many as central to maintaining a free and open internet.

In net neutrality, all pieces of data running across a network
like AT&T's are treated equally, and therefore move at the
same speed. Netflix benefits from net neutrality since it doesn't
have to pay companies like AT&T to move its data into a "fast
lane." That is unlikely to change anytime soon.

But where an AT&T merger with Time Warner could hurt Netflix
is in "zero rating" — when certain services, like Netflix or HBO,
don't count toward a user's data cap. This can make those
services more attractive because people aren't hit with huge
overage fees. (Video eats up a lot of data.)

And as long as AT&T's policy is consistent, it can charge
companies a fee to be zero rated. That could be a relative
advantage for AT&T-Time Warner. For instance, in the case of
HBO, that fee would simply be moving from one side of the
conglomerate to the other. For Netflix, on the other hand, that
would be money lost.

Beyond net neutrality, Hastings thinks the merger could affect
Netflix in a few ways.

"There's a lot of AT&T investment in content, so that could
make things tougher,"
Hastings told CNBC. "On the other hand, it's probably going
to get easier for us to recruit Time Warner executives, which are
a very talented bunch."